South Australian Film Corporation-supported films have been gaining international recognition over recent months:
Feature films Talk to Me and Run Rabbit Run have been acquired internationally after successful premieres at the Sundance Film Festival.
Meanwhile, feature films The Survival of Kindness and Limbo were selected at the Berlinale to a positive response, with The Survival of Kindness taking the top FIPRESCI jury Prize and short film, Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) receiving the coveted Silver Bear Jury Prize for Short Film.

SUNDANCE PREMIERES SEE TWO SOUTH AUSTRALIAN-MADE FILMS ACQUIRED INTERNATIONALLY, BY A24 AND NETFLIX

South Australian-made feature films Talk to Me and Run Rabbit Run, both supported by the South Australian Film Corporation, have seen major US and international sales after successful premieres at the Sundance Film Festival.

Daina Reid’s Run Rabbit Run, written by award-winning South Australian author Hannah Kent (The Good People, Devotion, Burial Rites) and produced by Sarah Shaw and Anna McLeish (Relic, Partisan, Snowtown), will screen worldwide on Netflix in 2023 after the streaming giant announced it had acquired the rights to the film.

Shot in South Australia’s Riverland region, the Carver Films production stars South Australian actor Sarah Snook (Succession) as a fertility doctor who firmly believes in life and death, but when she notices her young daughter behaving strangely, she must challenge her own values and confront a ghost from her past. 

And New York-based entertainment company A24 has acquired the US rights to feature film Talk to Me, from South Australian filmmaking twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, well known for their hit YouTube channel RackaRacka.

Filmed in Adelaide, South Australia, Talk to Me follows a group of friends who discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand and become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.

The Bankside Films and Causeway Films production is directed Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou, from a screenplay by Danny Philippou and South Australian writer Bill Hinzman. The talented cast includes Sophie Wilde, Miranda Otto, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Dhanji, Zoe Terakes and Chris Alosio.

Critics have raved about Talk to Me following its international premiere in Sundance’s Midnight program, with Variety calling it an “entertaining Aussie horror” that’s “a cut above average”, Bloody Disgusting describing it as “an intense, nightmarish horror movie that’ll leave you breathless” and The Curb lauding it as “a new benchmark for horror films”.

“It was so thrilling to witness the amazing reaction to Talk To Me at Sundance. We are delighted to have A24 as our North American distributor and are thankful for our continuing relationship with Sam and Kristina at Causeway Films”

Stephen Kelliher of Bankside Films

Produced by Causeway Films’ Samantha Jennings and Kristina Ceyton, Talk to Me received major production investment from Screen Australia in association with the South Australian Film Corporation, Adelaide Film Festival, KOJO Studios, Head Gear Films, Hold Standard and Maslow Umbrella Ahi Entertainment. 

Talk to Me was also selected for the Berlinale and SXSW 2023, and will be released theatrically in Australia and New Zealand by Maslow Entertainment and Ahi, with Umbrella handling home entertainment across both territories. These festivals follow the film’s Australian special preview screening at the Adelaide Film Festival last year. 

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN FILMS MAKE HISTORY AT THE BERLINALE

South Australian-made feature films The Survival of Kindness and Limbo competed for the prestigious Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlinale this month, with The Survival of Kindness taking home the top critics’ award, the FIPRESCI Prize, marking the first time an Australian film has been featured in Competition since 2006.
Additionally, Short film, Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) has won the coveted Silver Bear Jury Prize for short film.

Rolf de Heer’s The Survival of Kindness, produced by de Heer and South Australian producer Julie Byrne of Triptych Pictures, premiered internationally at the 2023 Berlinale after screening at Adelaide Film Festival last year.

Supported by the South Australian Film Corporation and the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund, and shot in South Australia’s dramatic Flinders Ranges, the film stars South Australian actor Mwajemi Hussein in what is a must-see cinematic experience from one of Australia’s most visionary and acclaimed filmmakers.

Also selected for Competition at the Berlinale was Ivan Sen’s mystery thriller Limbo, produced by David Jowsey and Greer Simpkin of Bunya Productions and Rachel Higgins, with South Australian Associate Producer Elaine Crombie.

Shot in the unique South Australian underground Outback town of Coober Pedy, the film stars Simon Baker (Breath, Blaze, The Mentalist, High Ground), with Rob Collins (The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson, Firebite), South Australian actor Natasha Wanganeen (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Firebite) and Nicholas Hope (Bad Boy Bubby, The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson). The Hollywood Reporter described Limbo as a “visually striking” film with a “superb” performance by Baker.

Baker stars as Travis Hurley, a detective investigating the 20-year-old unsolved murder of an Aboriginal girl. Forming bonds with the victim’s fractured family, Travis unravels a series of hard truths, highlighting the complexities of loss and injustice experienced by First Nations Australians.

The Survival of Kindness and Limbo head up a contingent of four South Australian-made and South Australian Film Corporation-supported films screening at the Berlinale including horror Talk to Me from Adelaide brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, which was picked up by A24 off its international premiere at Sundance 2023 and will also screen at SXSW.

Short film, Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) from SA writers and directors Derik Lynch and Matthew Thorne, and SA producers Patrick Graham and Duncan Graham has taken home the Silver Bear Jury Prize for short film.

Left: Derik Lynch in Marungka Tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black), Photo by Matthew Thorne
Above: Derik Lynch in Dipped in Black

Next month South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas will also see the international premiere of thriller Monolith, the inaugural production to come out of the South Australian Film Corporation and Adelaide Film Festival’s Film Lab: New Voices initiative. Made by the South Australian first-time filmmaking team of director Matt Vesely, writer Lucy Campbell and producer Bettina Hamilton, Monolith will have its international premiere as part of SXSW’s Midnighters program.

Expectations are high for more festival success for South Australia’s screen sector, after industry trade Screen International recently named two forthcoming SA-made films among the “Four Australian films to tempt festival directors in 2023” – Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy starring Cate Blanchett, and Kitty Green’s The Royal Hotel starring Julia Garner, which both shot in regional South Australia in 2022.

Find out more about the South Australian screen industry and how it’s supported by the South Australian Film Corporation at www.safilm.com.au